So 2016 is finally behind us. A memorable year, to say the least. After dominating the headlines for months on end, the elections are finally over. And that begs the question, “Now what?”.
Whether you are happy or unhappy with the results, those emotions will most likely fade (if they haven’t already) and the day to day issues that we all deal with will push politics off of center stage and life will get back to “normal” for most people. And by “normal”, I think that most people only ride the up and down rollercoaster of interest in the political world every 4 years – with an occasional bump every 2 years. That’s “Politics”. And that’s the Problem.
I was talking with a friend recently about how different our Nation/State/Communities would be if we all exhibited the same amount of interest in Government as we do in Politics. What would Delaware look like if the same number of concerned citizens contacted their legislators throughout the year as showed up to vote on election day? What would be the impact on County Council if we wrote concerned emails to Council members with the same passion and conviction that we use to comment on political Facebook posts? What real differences could be made if we were actually more concerned about how our elected officials govern than we were about who is running for office?? Don’t get me wrong – elections are important – but isn’t what they actually DO once they get there more important than the individuals who were elected?
You may have read an article on this blog recently entitled “Lets Do Delaware Right” by Frank Knotts. And as many of you know, Frank and I are a lot like oil and water – we don’t mix well – and we don’t agree on a lot. But I will go out on a limb and say that there is at least one thing we agree on – and that is that we want to see Delaware move forward successfully. As a state, we have some major problems facing us. From fiscal issues to social and educational challenges, we are in need of strong leadership and, just as importantly, accountability. My interest lies primarily in the fiscal challenges that we face and in getting to a (real) balanced budget. Over this next year, I hope to offer some insights into Delaware’s finances, expose some of the games that are played with our tax dollars, and hopefully encourage all of us to Get Informed, Get Involved, and Make a Difference. Lets consider refocusing our energies from Politics to Government and have an impact all year long.
I am looking forward to conversing with everyone as we attempt to Do Delaware Right.
Bob Mitchell you are a glunten for punishment.
Responding to DR resorting to explanations of one’s political positions just to attempt to be significant only really displays how really how insignificant Republican attempts are.
Has anyone bothered noticed that Democrats will continue to win statewide elections for the next twenty years or longer?
Are you guys just that naive?
Carney raised over 500 thousand in five months. He raised 200 thousand in two days 2015.
All Democrats running for Lt. Governor and Congress raised over several hundred thousands apiece. Why? Democrats pull in big money in and out of state. They have those California connections.
Republican Party has nothing. Zilch, nada, nothing.
RNC will not support De. Republican Party BC of their insignificant.
Save your breath to die with. You are not going to get anywhere with the likes of DR and it’s criminal element.
Wow Bob. After the beating you took at the hands of DelawareRight.com during the election it kind of surprises me to see you participate with the likes of Frank KKKnots, GROSSman and 3x loser Cragg.
But as Henry points out, no Republican will ever win statewide again because the the progressive democrats in NCC and the influx of the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania voters who are pre programmed to vote D.
But can someone explain State Auditor Tom Wagner and State Treasurer Ken Simpler and how they win? Or are their days numbered in the doom and gloom of the Republican demise.
Well as Bob said above, he and I have what might be called a history. But the fact he was invited to become a contributor here despite that, demonstrates exactly what we are attempting to do. Find as many voices as we can to join the conversation, whether we agree 100% or not. Let’s talk.
And for those of you out there who are upset we have given Bob and others this forum, well get writing and submit your post.
Now Bob, you knew this couldn’t be all sunflowers and rainbows, right? You said above,
“but isn’t what they actually DO once they get there more important than the individuals who were elected?”
Well Bob, I’m sure I don’t need to point his out to you, of all people, but you have to get there before you can do anything.
Delaware is been “moving forward” for years. Assuming by “forward” you mean more senseless “programs,” more debt, bigger government, higher taxes and fees and casinos.
Are the roads, schools or businesses “moving forward?” Well, at least crime is doing well.
@Western Sussex Refugee: “But can someone explain State Auditor Tom Wagner and State Treasurer Ken Simpler and how they win?”
I’d venture it’s because neither is a strident ideologue. Both are likeable. Simpler is manifestly competent. Wagner has been State Auditor for so long (27 years?) that people figure he must be.
Henry – I don’t think I am a “glutton for punishment”, but I understand why you would ask that! My intent is, and always has been, that everyone needs to Get Informed, Get Involved, and Make a Difference. In the state-wide races, Democrats definitely have the money and the votes in New Castle County to be extremely hard to beat. However, Republicans have made gains in the Legislative branch – and that is a “yuge” deal – because that is where the money is approved, allocated, and distributed. Fiscal accountability in the House and Senate to move to a true balanced budget would be the at the top of my wish list – and I hope there are people on both sides of the aisle who come together to make that happen.
WSR – Yes, Frank’s attacks on me certainly gave me pause while I was considering the invitation to contribute to this site. However, as I have said many times, I have no problem discussing topics with anyone who is genuinely interested. There are many who read and interact on Delaware Right that are able to read above the things that have been written about me.
Interestingly, Frank’s childish attacks and photo-shopped pictures over the last year actually reflected more negatively on him than it did on me. But, to be fair, he usually shops for his ideas at his favorite store: “Knott’smart” – and most people understand the source…
Frank – certainly if one attains office, they can have much more influence. However, to say that you have to win an election “before you can do anything” is far from the truth and is exactly why I wrote this article. We have to begin to see that we can make a difference every week and not just during the election season.
Rick – I whole-heartedly agree with your comment. Perhaps if the electorate realizes that their involvement can be year round rather than just during an election cycle, we might be able to hold lawmakers to a sense of accountability that they have not had in the past.
Honi – I agree in part with your statement – however, I do feel that Mr. Simpler’s competency and transparency is what got him elected and I believe that is the only way others will obtain office as well.
Thanks to all for their comments, and I welcome any others.
State Auditor Tom Wagner and State Treasurer Ken Simpler win because they aren’t self righteous religion crazed pandering right wing nutcases. Republicans used to be regular state wide office holders such as Castle and Roth. But the witch/sheriff talk radio wing of the party took over and has doomed most opportunities for republican state wide office ever since. Seems fairly self evident.
Roth and Castle both lost. And while it’s popular to say “Castle would have defeated Coons,” I say maybe not. But who needs Castle in the Senate? What difference would it have made?
In 2018, the Socialist-Democrats must defend twenty-five Senate seats, many of them in “red” states. The GOP survived their 2016 challenge, losing only the inept Kirk (IL) and the RINO Ayotte (NH).
Will the Socialist-Democrats be so lucky? No. Sixty GOP Senate seats is a distinct possibility.
Parenthetically, I would like to thank Meryl Streep and the rest of the super-rich Hollywood elite for demonstrating their contempt for those in the thirty states who elected Donald Trump. Thanks for continuing to drive a wedge between the two America’s. It will be remembered in 2018.
It was also pretty funny to listen to Streep pontificate on the subject of “inciting violence.” This coming from a Hollywood matron who works in a cesspool of “artists” who promote sex, violence, murder and mayhem in virtually every movie they produce. What a monumental, brainless hypocrite she and the super-rich elites in Hollywood really are.
Why didn’t she mention misogynistic, violent, cop-killing rap “music?” Oh, I remember- advocating rape, murder, cop-killing and drug-dealing is a “liberal” cause.
Like I’ve frequently said, no sense of self-parody.
Streep is just toeing the line for Obama’s call for a “smooth transition of power, right. Just remember that they always claim the opposite of what their true intensions are.
I knew right away that when the accusations of “fake news” started getting thrown around by the left, that’s when double the fake news was what we were about to get from them.
Speaking of “fake news” regarding the “hacking” of the election; why is no one pointing out the fact that the hacking/leaking of John Podesta’s emails started getting leaked before Trump was even the nominee? …Maybe the Russians were hacking on behalf of Bernie Sanders in order to help him win the Democratic Primary…..He was the true Marxist in the bunch after all…lol
Was there something particularly inaccurate or wrong with that she said or is it just that it makes you guys uncomfortable to self reflect on the ugliness of the people you support?
“Was there something particularly inaccurate or wrong with that she said ”
Yes, in fact there was something inaccurate about what she said.
Her whole speech, along with the crying act, was pretty much hinged on the premise that Trump mocked a disabled reporter…. The problem is that Trump never mocked a reporter’s disability….Just another fake news story in a sea of fake news stories.
This is what Hollywood mocking disabled people (for profit) looks like:
Yeah, he did mock a reporter’s disability.
Trump’s hand gestures are apparently an impression of someone “floundering”,and he has done the same thing to fully abled people.. is what they are saying.
If he does the same thing while describing other people who he thinks are “floundering”, I can only assume that the gestures in question were not meant to mock a disability , and his mannerisms are more likely some sort of quirky (somewhat lacking in tact), Trumpism ,as it were.
……After watching several videos of Trump ,in context, doing the same thing describing other people, I am thoroughly convinced that he wasn’t mocking the reporter’s disability……classic fake news… America was duped again.
America was duped again.
Make that “liberals” were duped again. As usual.
Bob said, “Frank – certainly if one attains office, they can have much more influence. However, to say that you have to win an election “before you can do anything” is far from the truth and is exactly why I wrote this article.”
Well Bob, I was merely addressing what you said in your original post, “What real differences could be made if we were actually more concerned about how our elected officials govern than we were about who is running for office?? Don’t get me wrong – elections are important – but isn’t what they actually DO once they get there more important than the individuals who were elected?”
You were specifically speaking about people who are elected, now you want to say you were talking about what people who are not elected, or who couldn’t get elected can do. That’s fine we can have that conversation as well, but let us not forget what was said here.
You are correct, people should be involved, and they should contact there representatives regularly, and not for the first time to tell them they are running against them. They should vote in every election possible, and not take off the off years and skip what they see as the “unimportant” elections.
And to say it is unimportant who “is” running? Well again, can’t govern, if you can’t win.
What’s a liberal?
There’s video of Trump mocking the reporter he named who has a disability with his arms and legs then Trump flailing his arms. Pretty easy to see.
What’s a liberal?
At one time, it was men like Burke, Washington and Jefferson.
Today, it’s a rigid, politically-correct dolt who believes in speech codes and thought police.
Let’s look at one of the pet projects of today’s “liberal”…”equality.”
On “equality,” Foseti….
To call the belief in substantial human equality a superstition is to insult superstition. It might be unwarranted to believe in leprechauns, but at least the person who holds to such a belief isn’t watching them not exist, for every waking hour of the day. Human inequality, in contrast, and in all of its abundant multiplicity, is constantly on display, as people exhibit their variations in gender, ethnicity, physical attractiveness, size and shape, strength, health, agility, charm, humor, wit, industriousness, and sociability, among countless other features, traits, abilities, and aspects of their personality, some immediately and conspicuously, some only slowly, over time. To absorb even the slightest fraction of all this and to conclude, in the only way possible, that it is either nothing at all, or a ‘social construct’ and index of oppression, is sheer Gnostic delirium: a commitment beyond all evidence to the existence of a true and good world veiled by appearances. People are not equal, they do not develop equally, their goals and achievements are not equal, and nothing can make them equal. Substantial equality has no relation to reality, except as its systematic negation. Violence on a genocidal scale is required to even approximate to a practical egalitarian program, and if anything less ambitious is attempted, people get around it (some more competently than others).
The only “equality” the “liberal” desires is equality of outcomes. And this is accomplished through discrimination and theft.
Yes, “liberals” have so much to be proud of.
“Violence on a genocidal scale is required” – foseti
rick,
So Foseti, the Friscian god of truth, peace and justice, is still your Lord and Savior ?
Foseti is a handle. Like delacrat.
But it doesn’t matter if he’s a professional wrestler. Can you dispute anything he says, or is what he writes beyond your ability to comprehend?
I guess I can’t expect much from a man who blames the weatherman for the weather.